Lebenslauf
SIMON HÖFELE
is the winner of the most important German classical music prize, OPUS KLASSIK 2020, and within a short space of time has established himself internationally as one of the most successful trumpet players of the young generation. As a soloist, he has already played with many leading orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, SWR Symphonieorchester, MDR Sinfonieorchester (MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra), NDR Radiophilharmonie, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Stuttgarter and Duisburger Philharmoniker, Staatskapelle Halle, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. In the 2021/22 season, he was artist-in-residence with the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt.
He has already given guest recitals in the Wigmore Hall in London, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, in L’Auditori in Barcelona, the Müpa Budapest, the Philharmonie Luxembourg, the Bozar in Brussels, in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, in the Konzerthaus Berlin, in the Prinzregententheater and Herkulessaal in Munich, in the Konzerthaus Dortmund, at the Cheltenham Music Festival, the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, the MITO Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the MDR Musiksommer and the Grafenegg Festival.
Simon Höfele has worked or still works with conductors such as Ryan Bancroft, Joseph Bastian, Semyon Bychkov, Alpesh Chauhan, Jonathan Cohen, Dennis Russell Davies, Jan Willem de Vriend, Ben Gernon, Pietari Inkinen, Julia Jones, Vladimir Jurowski, Roland Kluttig, Joana Mallwitz, Andrew Manze, Matthias Pintscher, Clemens Schuldt, Steven Sloane, Markus Stenz, Valentin Uryupin, Mario Venzago, Lorenzo Viotti, Duncan Ward, Kahchun Wong and many others.
The 2022/23 season will take Simon Höfele to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Dortmunder Philharmoniker, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie with a tour to the Koningin Elizabethzaal Antwerp, Münchner Kammerorchester, Chaarts Chamber Artists and the chamber orchestra I Tempi, with whom he will premiere Helena Winkelman’s new work “ICAROS”. He is also a guest at the Paris Philharmonic, where he will give the world premiere of Miroslav Srnka’s new work “Orion Arm”; at LSO St. Luke’s in London; and at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, among others.
As well as performing familiar trumpet repertoire ranging from Telemann, Tartini, Hummel and Mozart to Jolivet, Arutjunjan and Zimmermann, Simon Höfele is very enthusiastic about contemporary music. He has given the premières of several works written for him: “Milky Way” by Miroslav Smka (09/2019, Concertgebouw), “Three pieces for trumpet” and the Concertino for trumpet and orchestra by Mark Simpson (04/2019, Saffron Hall and 05/2021 Duisburger Philharmoniker) and “Fantasy for Trumpet” by Kaan Bulak (04/2019, London). In addition, he regularly plays pieces by Toshio Hosokawa, Christian Jost and Matthias Pintscher, giving the première of the latter’s double concerto for two trumpets with Reinhold Friedrich and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra in 2012.
Simon Höfele is an equally enthusiastic performer of chamber music in a wide variety of combinations. His partners include the pianists Elisabeth Brauss and Frank Dupree and the percussionist Vivi Vassileva.
Simon Höfele received his first trumpet lessons at the age of seven in his native city of Darmstadt. Five years later, while still at school, he became a pupil of Reinhold Friedrich, who accepted him into his trumpet class at the Karlsruhe Musikhochschule as a 14-year-old. He was picked out for the best European talent development schemes, among things being chosen as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, nominated as an ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation) “Rising Star” by the Cologne Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus in Dortmund and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and selected as an artist in the series “Junge Wilde” run by the Dortmund Konzerthaus. He now also teaches as a Visiting Artist at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and in various masterclasses.
Simon Höfele is signed to Berlin Classics as an exclusive artist. His album “Standards” with the trumpet concertos of Haydn, Hummel, Arutjunjan and Copland, which was recorded with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Duncan Ward and released in early 2020, was acclaimed by music critics and awarded the OPUS KLASSIK 2020 prize as “concert recording of the year.” The album “New Standards”, featuring classic recital pieces by Hindemith, Honegger, Francaix and Enescu, among others, which was released in spring 2021, also met with the highest praise from reviewers and concert organisers.
Alongside his musical projects, Simon Höfele is also involved in cultural politics and founded the association “Kunstverlust”, for which he makes photographic portraits of people who work actively to preserve art and culture.